Software company Mentor Graphics has said it expects revenues and adjusted income in the third quarter to top Wall Street expectations.

The US International Trade Commission has said it plans to launch an investigation into flash-memory chips in popular products such as Apple's iPhone, Research In Motion's BlackBerry Storm, as well as camcorders and laptop computers.

Chinese exports narrowly edged ahead of those from Germany in the first six months of 2009, in a fresh sign that Germany's status as the world's leading exporter is at risk.

President Obama wants to make the US "the world's leading exporter of renewable energy," but in his seven months in office, it is China that has stepped on the gas in an effort to become the dominant player in green energy — especially in solar power, and even in the US.

Samsung Electronics will produce 1.5 million 40nm DDR3 DRAM memory chips in September, and 20 million such chips every month afterwards until December.

PTI will provide final manufacturing services to Spansion at the Suzhou facility pursuant to a Supply Agreement between Spansion LLC and PTI. "We expect an uninterrupted supply of products to our customers after the transfer of ownership of the Suzhou facility...

Dutch semiconductor equipment maker ASM International will eliminate 106 jobs as it shutters its manufacturing facility in Phoenix and shifts those operations to Singapore.

Cloud computing and flash-based storage, two fast-emerging IT technologies, are driving each other forward as users of Internet-based services like social networks demand near-real-time access to ever-growing amounts of data.

Texas Instruments has placed a bid of US$172.5 million on used 300mm equipment from the now-shuttered Qimonda fab near Richmond, Va. The Dallas-based company plans to use the equipment for 300mm analog production.

"IC-packaging will almost certainly happen in Vietnam, but it has been delayed by one or two years..."

A fortnight after Typhoon Morakot first struck Taiwan on August 6 the storm continued to wreak havoc on the island. Morakot is also doing political damage.

Pure Wafer, a provider of silicon wafers and wafer services based on reclaimed wafers, has announced plans to raise £2.3 million (US$3.8 million) and restructure its debt, along with its delayed interim financial results to Dec. 30, 2008.

Texas Instruments (TI) could be interested in taking over Qimonda's US-based assets, writes news service swissinfo.ch.

Hynix is expected to swing to an operating profit in the July to September period, ending its seventh consecutive quarterly loss. Samsung may also see profits rise further in its semiconductor unit in the third quarter.

The Flash Memory Summit brought a range of opinions on the state of the NAND industry, scaling, 3-bit-per-cell and solid-state drives (SSDs).

Indonesia has proved to be less exposed to the global recession than many of its neighbours, and its economy expanded by 4.2% on year in the first half of 2009.

Verigy, a semiconductor testing company, has posted a net loss of US$21 million in its third quarter ended July 31, 2009, compared to net income of US$18 million in the prior year period.